Systems and methods which facilitate fixed rate shipping through the use of perpetual value bearing shipping labels are disclosed. The substantially perpetual viability of the value borne by perpetual value bearing shipping labels herein provides a shelf life which exceeds a shipping rate change epoch. Perpetual value bearing shipping labels of embodiments, although providing valid viable postage for use in obtaining shipping services, are provided as fungible products and do not include delivery or date information as pre-produced and made available to shippers in advance of their shipping activity. An on-line fulfillment system may be provided in which shippers may select a desired number of perpetual value bearing shipping labels in one or more value bearing amount for purchase by and delivery to the shipper for later use. Perpetual value bearing shipping labels may also be made available to shippers is through point of sale acquisition.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the value indicium is dateless.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the perpetual value bearing shipping label is dateless.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the perpetual value bearing shipping label comprises printing, by a fulfillment system, the perpetual value bearing shipping label.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the fulfillment system is adapted to provide printing of the perpetual value bearing shipping label in response to an order.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the perpetual value bearing shipping label comprises tracking information, and wherein the value indicia generation system is adapted to provide dummy information in association with the tracking information for at least one data aspect of the tracking information.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising replacing the null data with blank lines during the outputting of the perpetual value bearing shipping label.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the later supplied shipping information comprises updated delivery address information, updated shipper information, or both.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing information to the value indicia metering apparatus for generating the value indicium, wherein the information is provided in a format expected by the value indicia metering apparatus, and wherein the null data is included in the information to fill in a portion of the information according to the expected format.
13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the value indicium is dateless.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the perpetual value bearing shipping label is dateless.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein outputting the perpetual value bearing shipping label comprises printing the perpetual value bearing shipping label.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the perpetual value bearing shipping label is printed in response to an order.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the perpetual value bearing shipping label comprises tracking information, and wherein the operations comprise providing dummy information in association with the tracking information for at least one data aspect of the tracking information.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising replacing the null data with blank lines during the outputting of the perpetual value bearing shipping label.
21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the later supplied shipping information comprises updated delivery address information, updated shipper information, or both.
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October 1, 2020
June 13, 2023
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